The Islamic Caliphates

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The Islamic Caliphates
ARAB
ISLAMIC
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Historic Period Review

• Ancient Period
• Classical Period
• Post-Classical Period

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Rise of Islam

• Umma- Muslim Religious Community
• Imam
• Quran (koran)
• Hadith
• Sharia Law
• Five Pillars of Islam
• Confession of Faith
• Prayer
• Fasting
• Alms
• Hajj

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Rise of the Caliph

• The Caliph
• Theocracy
• Growth of Islam linked to growth of its Empire
• Abu Bakr
• First Caliph
• Sunnis vs. Shia
• Umar, Uthman, and Ali Followed
• Ali assassinated, makes way for Umayyad Dynasty

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The Umayyad Dynasty

• New Capital
• Mecca Remains Spiritual Center
• Arabic Becomes official Language
• Standard Money Unit
• Gold and Silver Coin
• Subjects encouraged to convert
• Extra tax on those who did not convert
• Enormous Expansion
• Charles Martel stops Muslims at Spain

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The Dome of the Rock
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Rise of Abbasid Dynasty

• 750 to 1258 A.D.
• Abu al-Abbas
• Shia and Mawali were his allies.
• Mawali (Islamic converts) also supported him to
  gain acceptance in the community of believers.
• Battle of River Zab
• Reconciliation Banquet
• Bad day for the Umayyad
• 750 A.D. Abbasid replaced Umayyad in all areas
  except Spain

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Early Abbasid Era

• Began to reject Shia and Malawi allies
• Defended Sunni Islam.
• Built a centralized, absolutist imperial order.
• New capital Baghdad The Round City on Tigris
  River
• Baghdad became the richest city in the
• world (only Constantinople came close)
• Golden Age
• Sat on jeweled thrones. Had palaces and harems!
  Image of elitism was important.
• For more than a century, able to collect revenue
  and preserve law over much of the empire.

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AbbasidArt
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Islamic Conversion and Mawali Acceptance

• Mass conversions to Islam were encouraged
  throughout the empire.
• Tolerant of other cultures/traditions
• Sufis
• Most converts were won over peacefully because of
  appeal of Islamic beliefs and advantages they
  enjoyed
• - didnt have to pay head tax
• - educational opportunities
• - jobs as traders, administrators, judges

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Town Country Commercial Boom and Agrarian
Expansion

• Abbasid Era was a great time of urban expansion
  and growth of merchant and landlord classes.
• Tang Song Dynasties in China were also reviving
  middle merchant class. (results of falls of
  Rome/Han)
• Arab DHOWS - trading vessels with triangular
  (lateen) sails were used from Mediterranean to S.
  China Sea. This style later influenced European
  ship design.

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Town Country Commercial Boom and Agrarian
Expansion, cont..

• Muslim merchants formed joint ventures with
  Christian and Jewish traders.
• Because each merchant had a different Sabbath,
  they could work 7 days/week.
• Merchants grew rich supplying cities with goods
  throughout the empire.
• Much wealth went to charity (required by Quran).
  
• Hospitals and medical care of the Abbasid Empire
  surpassed those of any other civilization of that
  time.

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Town Country Commercial Boom and Agrarian
Expansion, cont..

• Hospitals and medical care
• Abn al-Sina (Avicenna)
• Mohammad al-Razi
• Credit System
• Itemized Receipts and Bills
• Much unskilled labor was left to slaves.
• Some slaves were able rise to positions of power
  and gain freedom
• Huge estates might have slaves, indentured
  servants or sharecroppers.

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The First Flowering of Islamic Learning

• Early contributions from Abbasid were great
  mosques and palaces. Ex Dome of the Rock
• Advances in religious, legal and philosophical
  discourse.
• Science and Math! Abbasid scholars preserved
  Greek works of medicine, algebra, geometry,
  astronomy, anatomy, and ethics.
• Arabic traders in India carried the Indian number
  system across Mediter. and into Northern Europe.
  These number systems became ESSENTIAL to
  Scientific Revolution in W. Europe.

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Global Connections Early Islam the World

• Abbasid Empire was the go-between for the
  ancient civilizations of the Eastern
  Hemispherethis role grew as Arab trade networks
  expanded.
• Islam pioneered patterns of organization and
  thinking that would affect human societies in
  major ways for centuries.
• 5 Centuries Spread of Islam played a dominant
  role in the Afro-Eurasian World.

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Global Connections Early Islam the Worldcont.

• In the midst of achievement, Muslims were people
  that had some growing disadvantages, especially
  to Europeans.
• Muslim divisions would leave openings for
  political problems.
• Growing intolerance and orthodoxy led to the
  belief that the vast Islamic world contained all
  requirements for civilized life, which caused
  Muslim people to grow less receptive to outside
  influence and innovationsled to isolation at a
  time when Christian rivals were in a period of
  experimentation and exploration.

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Decline of the Caliphates

• Internal Struggles and Civil War
• Sunnis vs. Shia
• Different Ethnic Groups
• Destabilized Central Power
• Threats from Seljuk Turks, Persians, Europeans
  and Byzantines
• Mongols deal final blow
• 1258 overran Islamic Empire and destroyed Baghdad
• Ottoman Turks